7 Hurt As Irish Protestants March

BELFAST — Baton-wielding police on Sunday broke up a human chain of Roman Catholics trying to stop 5,000 Protestant extremists from marching through a Catholic area in a town near Belfast.

Seven people, five of them police officers, were injured, and three people were arrested, authorities said.

The Protestant Orangemen, wearing their traditional bowlers and orange sashes, marched two miles across Portadown, 30 miles west of Belfast, and through a Catholic housing project. It was the fourth time in two weeks that marches by loyalists led to violence in the embattled province.

Relations between Catholics and Protestants have grown tense in recent weeks because Protestants vowed to defy a ban against loyalist marches through Catholic areas.

Police had banned Protestant marches through Catholic areas to avoid tension this summer. Sir John Hermon, Royal Ulster Constabulary chief, lifted the ban in Portadown after Rev. Ian Paisley, the Protestant leader, warned of riots if paraders were not allowed to follow their traditional route.

About 40 Catholics formed a human chain Sunday to prevent the marchers from crossing under a railroad bridge into the Catholic ``Tunnel`` district.

Police officers, part of 300 police and British troops guarding the parade route, broke up the demonstration with batons and allowed the Protestants to proceed.

Dozens of police land rovers and army trucks formed a ring around the Catholic neighborhood of 2,000 in the loyalist town of 45,000 Protestants.

Witnesses said one parader was struck by a stone.

About 12 hours before the march, a bomb planted by a Catholic extremist group exploded outside a bar in Banbridge, County Down, slightly injuring one person.

The Irish National Liberation Army, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, which has been fighting to wrest Northern Ireland from British control, claimed responsibility.

In the last two weeks, Protestant marches in Belfast, Cookstown and Castlewellan led to clashes in which 34 people were injured. Police said they will prohibit further Protestant marches through Catholic areas.

The traditional Protestant marching season heads toward its climax July 12, when more than 100,000 Protestants plan 26 parades to mark the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over King James, a Catholic, in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.